Various power tools are used, particularly in woodworking, in an effort to efficiently and accurately produce a desirable surface finish to a workpiece. A conventional planer is a tool, often used in woodworking, to reduce the thickness of a workpiece or provide a smooth surface to the workpiece after a portion of the thickness has been removed. The planer utilizes at least one rotatably mounted cutting blade. Planers are typically either a hand-operated, power tool or a benchtop machine that may be portable. The hand-operated planer is easily operable by the user, wherein the user moves the planer over a workpiece in order to smooth the surface or make the surface of the workpiece generally flat. Surface planers are generally stationary, but can be transportable between a variety of different locations. Surface planers are adapted to receive the workpiece as the workpiece is fed through the machine. The surface planer is configured to finish the entire surface of the workpiece being fed therethrough.
Conventional surface planers typically utilize at least one rotatably mounted cutting blade attached to a vertically displaceable assembly. The cutting blade can be raised or lowered for a user-defined cutting thickness. The rotating blade generally contacts the upwardly-directed surface of the workpiece, and as the cutting blade rotates, chips or chunks of the workpiece are removed, thereby producing a flat, finished surface. Once the chips of the workpiece are removed, the chips are then expelled through a pathway that is directed away from the user, which is usually out the rear of the machine. In some surface planers, the loose chips are directed downwardly toward the floor or onto the finished surface of the workpiece where they may easily be removed by brushing or the like. In other surface planers, a vacuum is attached to an exhaust such that the loose chips are removed from the workpiece and through suction from the vacuum are disposed in a central disposal location.
Surface planers typically have a cover or shield that is disposed adjacent to the cutting blade or motor, and the cover or shield is adapted to direct the loose chips a particular direction after being removed from the workpiece. The cover or shield is configured to either direct the loose chips away from the cutting blade or to allow for a vacuum hose to be attached thereto so that the loose chips can be easily removed and stored. However, because some surface planers are portable, users may use the surface planers at a variety of locations for different projects. As such, the user may need the loose chips to be removed by a vacuum at one location but the loose chips may be disposed on the floor or ground at another location. In other situations in which the surface planer is not portable, a user may still want to choose between at least two modes of disposing of the loose chips removed from the workpiece. The prior art cover or shields usable on surface planers are designed for one or the other of these modes of disposal, but not both. As such, the user may need to purchase the alternative cover or shield in order to utilize the surface planer in another mode of disposal of chips.
Because the cover or shield that directs the loose chips away from the cutting blade is generally limited to a single purpose or mode, when the user desires to modify the surface planer in order to change the mode of disposal of the loose chips, the cover or shield needs to be removed and replaced with an alternative cover or shield. Such replacement can be tedious or cumbersome. Additionally, it is also necessary that the user store the alternative cover or shield, and storage of such a piece may lead to lost parts as well as wasted space within what may already be a limited working area. Further, because an alternative cover or shield for performing an alternative mode of disposal of loose chips may not be included with the purchased surface planer, the additional cover or shield may need to be purchased, thereby increasing the cost of using the machine.
There remains, therefore, a need for a cover or shield that is attachable to the surface planer that overcomes the limitations, shortcomings and disadvantages of other covers or shields.